"New York Has Bedbugs"

Like this is news? The Times did a big article in the Homes or Real Estate section a couple weeks back and the bottom line was the critters can work their way through walls from adjoining apartments, are hell to get rid of, and are increasing throughout the city. But still, is Broadway on the way to the Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman does his show the best place for a large, public service billboard with the title of this post in huge print? We've seen it half a dozen times because we've been going to the MoMA a lot lately -- most recently, for me, today for the last day of Monet's Waterlilies show -- but at a rough guess probably 80 percent of those who see that ugly billboard with its ugly message are tourists. Give me your tired, your poor, your hungry, your huddled masses yearning to be free...of bedbugs. That's the new welcome to New York.